WITH the paint only just dry on the Royal Lancaster Infirmary's new £27 million Centenary building, the hospital has received another cash boost.

Last week it was announced that more than £600,000 has been made available to create brand new units in the hospital's main building, helping to bring the facilities there up to scratch.

And that was followed by the news that the NHS top brass have approved three of Lancaster Acute Hospitals NHS Trust's million pound plans to further improve the RLI.

Those schemes include the transfer of services from the Lancaster Moor Hospital at a cost of £1.5 million and the creation of a new outpatients department which could cost up to £2.5 million.

Speaking after the announcement, trust chief executive Ian Cumming said: "Some people may have felt that after the £27 million Centenary Building we had had our lot but we have commitment and encouragement from both the health authority and the NHS regional office to continue to develop our plans."

The immediate £660,000 upgrade, the first step towards the creation of a totally modern medical unit to match the Centenary buildings state-of-the-art surgical one, should be finished by the end of the summer.

The revamp will include:

a new, 18-bed medical assessment ward costing £320,000.

a modern, six-bed coronary care unit at a price of £158,000.

a redesigned day case unit costing £230,000.

an upgraded day case operating theatre at a price of £100,000.

Ian Cumming added: "This is an important development because we will have the facilities for a better service for urgently admitted medical patients. It will help overcome situations when patients have had to wait for a bed to be found for them."

The new medical ward will take urgently admitted patients straight to an assessment bed for up to the first 24 hours care before being moved to a specific ward where they will be treated.

The new day case unit and modernised, air conditioned operating theatre should be ready by May with the assessment ward and coronary care unit to be completed by July.

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